Day 330: Watch What a Farce the Judicial Nominating Process Has Become

Thanks to the obstructionist ways of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), more than 100 federal judiciary openings sat vacant when Donald Trump took office. McConnell, in a substantial break of protocol, refused hearings or confirmation votes for most of Barack Obama’s nominees — most notably Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland — in essence rigging the system to enrich whoever won in 2016 with vacancy after vacancy.

When Trump won, he was slow to nominate judicial candidates and Republicans in the Senate were focused on trying to get health care “reform” done over and over and over again.

Now, unsurprisingly, the process has become a charade, as Republicans are trying to jam nominees, who would carry lifetime appointments, through quickly. Trump has nominated numerous individuals the American Bar Association has rated “unqualified,” a rare distinction.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and seems exasperated by the process.

A couple things of important note here:

• One of Trump’s picks, Matthew Petersen, has never tried a case and has never even taken a deposition by himself. (This follows multiple other candidates that Trump nominated that also have no practical litigation experience.) Petersen doesn’t know what a motion in limine is (a formal request to limit certain evidence) or what the Daubert standard is (the methodology of admitting expert testimony). He similarly has no clue on critical abstention doctrines (which push federal courts to avoid ruling under certain circumstances). These are basic tenets of federal law and he doesn’t know them, and yet, Trump wants to see him overseeing litigation that can affect the liberty and rights of some and the wallets of others. Forget experience dealing with critical procedural and evidentiary matters, Petersen can’t even explain what they are.
• On top of the gross amount of inexperience shown by various candidates, each committee member is given just five minutes to question all five candidates before them. As can be seen from the video, Kennedy didn’t have time to ask the other candidates any direct questions, despite his desire to do so. These are lifetime appointments and the committee members used to vet the candidates are getting, on average, a minute each to do so. In many cases, the prospective judge will offer no more than a couple of words to the committee.

The entire process became a sham when McConnell blocked Obama’s nominees solely for political purposes. It’s become doubly so since Trump’s been in office.

330 days in, 1132 to go

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